As our partner program is celebrating its first anniversary, Powell Software wants to thank all its current partners who have already trusted our compelling value proposition and welcome new partners worldwide to address an increasing demand. This compelling model that combines the Powell 365 technology to a network of partners with varied expertise enables us to provide the most compelling offerings to answer our customers’ needs in the best way.
The Cloud Transforms Digital Workplace Projects
Powell 365 was created in 2014 when our CTO and our Product Manager – both among the best SharePoint experts – realized that the cloud revolution would radically transform how to design and implement intranet portals within organizations.
A cloud platform, like Microsoft Office 365, provides an unequal set of new features compared to SharePoint On Premise. Microsoft is constantly providing new features and new improvements on a weekly or monthly basis. In this context, it is becoming increasingly challenging for a company to build their intranet portal on Office 365 as they used to build it on SharePoint On Premise. It cannot be a heavy, long and rigid custom development anymore. The new approach must be light and it must leverage all the new powerful Office365 features beyond SharePoint to transform the traditional intranet portal into a versatile digital workplace that addresses all communication and collaborative needs of an organization.
That is why Powell 365 has an intranet portal WYSIWYG designer that helps build an Enterprise class digital workplace on the Microsoft Office 365 platform without -or with limited- coding. Our objective is to offer the best configuration tool on the market to design and implement intranet portals in a fast and evolving way. The new digital workplace should be agile, implemented in an iterative way, without any tunnel effect. A first pilot should be live in a couple of days or weeks to validate if it really matches the users’ needs. A first deployment is only a matter of a couple additional weeks and it can be followed by iterative updates that provide new features and improvements depending both on the evolution of the customer’s needs and of the Office 365 platform.
A Comprehensive Solution: Providing More than a Technology
Powell 365 is an idea born on the shores of Lake Powell, UT, USA, in 2014. After one year of design and development (project code Powell), it was launched in Fall 2015. Its immediate first successes encouraged Powell Software to promptly start its international development with the launch of Powell Software North America in February 2016.
Now, we are all aware that the best technology cannot provide the best solution to customers on a worldwide basis if it is not offered, implemented and supported by the best network of professionals who will deliver the best expertise depending on the specific needs of each customer. Providing a technology, a tool, is not enough. It is important to be surrounded with the best professionals who can understand and address specific customer needs on a local basis.
That is why, along with its international development, Powell Software decided to build an international network of partners who offer, implement and/or support Powell 365 for customers. In May 2016, exactly one year ago, Powell Software launched its partner program. In less than one year, Powell Software has already recruited more than 60 partners who have embraced its technology to offer a new generation of Digital Workplaces to customers.
A Broad Range of Partners
The Powell Software partner model is directly inspired by the most successful partner models on the market specifically Microsoft. Powell Software’s technical, marketing and sales teams work very close with as well as several of Microsoft’s most successful partners. As the needs of our customers can vary significantly from one organization or market to another, our partners have a large variety of expertise.
Microsoft Professional Services Certified Partners:
Several Powell 365 partners are Microsoft professional services partners with certified competencies on the Office 365 platform including SharePoint, Power BI and Dynamics CRM Online. Our partners are very proficient on the Microsoft technologies, which are the foundations of Powell 365. They also often partner with complementary solutions like Nintex to address complex workflows for example or ShareGate to address content migration. In this context, learning Powell 365 is a very fast and easy track for most of them.
As part of their panel of expertise, our partners can help customers clarify and formalize their needs. They have proven methods to implement digital workplaces based on Microsoft SharePoint. Powell 365 provides a compelling accelerator to help them offer more competitive solutions and differentiate themselves to stay ahead of the game.
Digital Workplace & Intranet Portal Consulting Companies:
We have other partners who are more specialized in consulting services, independent of the technologies used to implement a new digital workplace. They help companies define their digital workplace strategies, assess their needs, build a long-term and short term plan to move from current situation to a defined objective. These companies are technology agnostics but many of them have found that Powell 365 is a unique solution to help them move fast from strategy to realization. As strategy and technology are more and more connected, many of these companies have a solid background in Office 365 technical expertise. They can easily get trained on Powell 365 and be able to deliver end to end projects.
Resell Partners:
Some of our partners are focused on reselling technology solutions and are a part of the Microsoft on premise and cloud solution broad portfolio. Known as Value Added Resellers (VAR) or Licensing Solutions Partners (LSP), in Microsoft jargon, these partners find that Powell 365 brings additional value to their customers. Powell 365 delivery and support can be delivered in a complementary way via our partners like the ones described above or directly by Powell Software.
Managed Services Partners:
The gigantic move to the cloud, which the BtoB solution market is currently experiencing, is radically transforming the different vendor offerings.
The cloud means recurring services and no more one-off projects. The cloud means permanent evolutions and no more rigid solutions. Therefore, more and more players are now offering managed services that address these new paradigms. Instead of only delivering licenses or a one-off professional services project, they deliver a managed-services offer encompassing technologies and services together under a recurring contract. Microsoft embraced this new approach a couple of years ago, by implementing a new partner program called the CSP, Cloud Solution Provider program.
Powell 365, via its technology and licensing model, has completely embraced managed services offerings and is perfectly aligned to the Microsoft CSP program. Powell 365 naturally complements CSP partners’ offerings by providing compelling, evolving and robust digital workplace solutions for customers.
A Streamlined Partner Program
Powell Software welcomes all these different types of partners into the Powell 365 Partner Program. Under this program, Powell 365 partners are trained and certified through a streamlined partner plan approach with efficient processes and tools. They have access to all functional and technical information that continues to thrive with breakthrough offerings. The Powell 365 business model and technology is a guaranteed success for partners who add Powell 365 to their offering portfolio.
For more information about the Powell 365 Partner program please contact us today.
Long Live the Powell 365 Partner Program!
Powell Software will never stop evolving and will continue to improve the different services part of its partner program moving forward. For customers, the Powell 365 partner model is the guarantee to find the best cloud offers to answer to their specific needs.
We are grateful to all the partners who have already embraced the Powell 365’s technology and model. As Powell Software grows we are thankful to welcome new partners to offer top notch solutions to customers together.